Haitink's Seventh is magnificent, too; it's arguably the greatest recording ever of this fascinating piece. It deserved that Gramophone award (best orchestral record of 1986).

Sarge

Sarge,I do not own any Haitinks VW. I cannot say its the greatest recording..I will have to listen for it as the seventh is one of my favs.....On the other hand, I do not put much credibility into anything gramophone recommends...

Sarge,I do not own any Haitinks VW. I cannot say its the greatest recording..I will have to listen for it as the seventh is one of my favs.....On the other hand, I do not put much credibility into anything gramophone recommends...

I don't either (if you don't know my history, I'll tell you: I'm one of the Gramophone bashers )...but I have to say, when they're right, they're right.

Sarge

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the phone rings and somebody says,"hey, they made a movie aboutMahler, you ought to go see it.he was as f*cked-up as you are." --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

Yes, Haitink's Antartica is without narration. Boult has the traditionally used poems that RVW put in the original score. Leppard (Indianapolis SO) has a very fine recording with an alternative narration of excerpts from Scott's diaries, which I think works better. Allegedly, Leppard discussed this idea with RVW personally.

Boult's EMI version of No 7 does not contain the spoken superscriptions before the music.

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"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

tjguitar

I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but what I like about the packaging of this box is that all the cd's are in individual jewel cases instead of sleeves in a box that most seem to be released in these days.

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Don

I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but what I like about the packaging of this box is that all the cd's are in individual jewel cases instead of sleeves in a box that most seem to be released in these days.

btpaul674

Well I am partial to the 8th, which is my favorite piece of music of all time.

As far as his obscure music is concerned,The Romance for Harmonica, Strings and Piano is excellent, I love his String Partitia, His Piano Concerto, his Oboe Concerto, His Tuba Concerto, all excellent!

There is something about his modal use, his distinct sense of rhythms through the symphonies, his undying passion for folk music, and his sense of classicism that makes his music really stick out to me.

One of my favorite quotes from Vaughan Williams Studies by Alain Frogley is "the counterbalancing belief in things of the spirit," which is one of the themes presumed to be found in all Vaughan Williams' symphonies. This I believed is really capped in the 8th symphony.

Currently I am reading Vaughan Williams and the Vision of Albion by Wilfrid Mellers.

karlhenning

Well, it is official: I like A London Symphony, which means that I now like all the set of nine. Not sure who the performers were in the recording I heard a couple of years ago.

So, with this favorable acquaintance with No. 2, and the love-at-first-hearing audition of Job, I feel that the Handley set has done its work. Yet more than that, though, the recordings of Nos. 7, 8 & 9 in this set are even better than the Bakels Naxos recordings, which first 'sold' me on those pieces.

Harry

Well, it is official: I like A London Symphony, which means that I now like all the set of nine. Not sure who the performers were in the recording I heard a couple of years ago.

So, with this favorable acquaintance with No. 2, and the love-at-first-hearing audition of Job, I feel that the Handley set has done its work. Yet more than that, though, the recordings of Nos. 7, 8 & 9 in this set are even better than the Bakels Naxos recordings, which first 'sold' me on those pieces.